The Only Exception
by IttyBitty96
Summary: Edward is the new guy in Forks who has no intention of staying. But when he meets the closed off Bella, all that changes and he is determined to break down her walls. AH, cannon couples.


Edward Masen stood outside of Forks High School in the snow while it melted in his socks. He didn't want to go to another school in another town.

Especially in a town of such a dismal size.

He walked through the crowd and did his best not to meet anybody's eyes. They all stared at him, whispering rumors.

"...heard he's from Chicago..."

"...he's so cute!"

"...was expelled from three different schools..."

He rolled his eyes and entered the main office. Before the door could even swing shut, the receptionist looked up directly at him, her blue eyes piercing his own green ones through his shades.

"Mr. Masen, we don't wear glasses when we're indoors." She instructed with a hint of a southern accent.

Edward was quick to whip them off."Right. Sorry Mrs..." his eyes ran around her desk to find a name but he couldn't.

"Shelly." She smiled exposing a set of pearl white teeth.

Edward nodded and put his glasses in his pocket. "I just, uh, needed my schedule."

Shelly nodded and began to rummage through her drawers.

Finally she popped back up, her light brown hair tossed casually over her shoulder."Alright so here is your schedule. Luckily all your classes are not far from each other or the cafeteria, but just in case you need help-" she stopped suddenly and smiled."Excuse me...Jasper?" She called to the retreating back of a blonde boy wearing a letterman's jacket.

The boy, Jasper, hesitated, but turned around."Yeah?" He asked.

"Would you show Mr. Masen around the school? Most of your classes are shared." She asked. Jasper and Edward eyed each other briefly, and Jasper hesitantly nodded. "You two have a nice day." She said warmly.

Edward grabbed his schedule and went with Jasper. They were silent for a little, except for Jasper murmuring which buildings were which and when they reached their class, Jasper spoke up."I know it's not much, but it is welcoming." Jasper said and Edward shrugged.

"It'll do for now." Jasper's tone was icy when he replied.

"You don't give much credit at all do you?" He asked before retreating into the classroom.

Edward let out a deep sigh and followed him."Hey, I'm sorry that I insulted your town or whatever. I'm just not thrilled about moving again." Edward apologized.

Jasper smirked and sat at his table. "It's whatever. I'd be pretty pissed too if I had to leave the bright lights, city nights for this place." Jasper snickered. "Just watch what you say. Some people are more defensive than I am."

Edward nodded and looked around for a seat to sit in. Jasper laughed.

"Don't look so lost. Sit down." he ordered and Edward smiled.

Thankfully, his teacher didn't make him introduce himself. He really didn't need anymore rumors.

The rest of that day was rather boring actually. Jasper introduced Edward to more of Jasper's football buddies. No one really memorable. He thought Garrett Pace was a pretty cool. There was another guy named Mike Newton. He was a little douchey, but nothing too bad other than his girlfriend seemed to have a thing for Edward.

"Okay guys, give Edward a little air time." Jasper laughed. They were at lunch now and everyone seemed interested in him. "Don't worry. Everything will cool down after a little while."

"I hope." Edward stressed, his eyes still a little wide in bewilderment. Jasper just laughed and sunk his teeth into his salami sandwich.

Edward leaned back in his chair and looked around the cafeteria when a particular table caught his eye. It was nearly empty except for one girl.

She was somewhat dainty, nowhere near as dainty as his cousin, but small nonetheless.

She stuck out from all the other girls, who were clad in preppy, frilly clothes. She wore dark skinny jeans, black vans, and a black jacket.

Her dark brown hair hung down in waves, and her doe-like brown eyes looked bright compared to the dark black eyeliner covering her eyes.

And much unlike the other girls, she was slumped in her chair as if trying to make herself shrink.

Edward felt himself being drawn in. He couldn't help but continually point out the differences between this one girl and all the other girls.

"Who's that?" he heard himself ask Jasper. When he unwillingly looked at Jasper, he realized that Jasper must've been talking this entire time.

But Jasper looked over at who Edward was talking about and his expression turned somber.

"Oh. That's Bella." Jasper mumbled so lowly as if he were afraid someone might hear him. Edward waited for him to continue, but Jasper just kept on eating.

"And? What's her story?" Edward prompted, but Jasper just shrugged.

"Wish I knew."

Edward gave Jasper a withered look. Jasper glanced at Edward and sighed, setting his sandwich down.

"Her name is Bella Swan. Freshman year, she was a regular Jessica Stanley-but everyone liked her." Jasper whispered making Edward snicker. "She participated in everything-well everything but sports-and she was everyone's friend." Jasper's eyes suddenly tightened, and Edward couldn't help but feel that maybe Jasper and Bella were more than that at one time. "But something over the summer must've happened-word is that Bella's mom skipped town-and Bella came back sophomore year just like that." he jerked his head in her direction. "Walls up and everything."

Edward looked over at Bella and she did, in fact, have a look on her face that said, "Leave me alone or I will kill you".

"Has anyone ever tried to talk to her?" Edward asked in a disapproving tone. He knew first hand it was never any fun to be alone.

"Umm…" Jasper hesitated, and to his horror, Edward stood up.

"I bet all she needs is a friend." Edward said and did what he wished someone would've done for him the first time he moved. He walked over to Bella's table.

"Edward, I don't think-" Jasper tried but Edward just tuned him out and sat across from Bella.

She stopped scribbling in her little notebook, and looked up at Edward slowly, as if she were sizing him up. He smiled at her when her eyes locked with his eyes.

"I'm Edward." he introduced himself. She was silent as she just stared at him. He suddenly felt very idiotic. "I'm new."

Finally she opened her mouth to speak. "Go away." she said roughly in a quiet yet strong voice.

Edward shook his head and Bella just continued to glare at him. "You don't really want to be alone do you?" he asked her.

She just glared at him and closed her notebook with a dull thud. She stuffed it in her bag, threw it around her neck, and walked away.

Edward let out a huge sigh and walked back to his table where everyone was staring at him as if he were insane.

"Crash, and burn." Mike Newton sneered making Edward give him a nasty look.

"Not exactly." Edward smiled to himself.

"What? She actually talked to you?" Jasper asked sounding shocked, and a little bit jealous, Edward thought.

"Well…sorta." Edward shrugged biting into his macaroni and cheese. "She told me to go away."

"So what are you so hyped about?" Ernie or Eric Something asked.

"Bella Swan is going to be my new project." and with one last spoonful of mac and cheese he got up, and walked away.

* * *

><p>Bella Swan walked away breathless. That new guy, Edward, certainly had balls. Well, enough to actually approach her with Jasper Whitlock whispering insulting rumors about her to him.<p>

She took a deep breath and sat down on a planter outside the cafeteria, usually where the stoners scored and got high. A lot of them had once tried to get her to smoke a few, but now they just left her alone.

She opened her notebook to the sketch she was working on before Edward interrupted her.

It was a sketch of a girl crowded around people. All of them had obvious fake smiles where as she was frowning and looking suspicious.

After she had finished the final touches on it she leaned back and stared at it.

"Hey." she looked over to see who it was talking to her. It was Tyler Crow, one of the dealers. "That's a good drawing."

Bella sighed and ripped it out. She handed it to him. "You can have it."

Tyler smirked and stuffed it in his pocket. "I'll take that as payment." he tossed her pack of weed.

She tried to give it back, but he shook his head and walked away.

"Bella!" she heard someone shout and Jasper came sprinting over to her. She rolled her eyes and got up.

He snatched the bag out of her hand and began to look around.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Bella?" he hissed tossing the bag away.

She rolled her eyes again and pushed him away. "Go away Jasper. You don't know anything about me. You never have. So…just stop."

She walked away with her sketch pad.

Later that day she sat at her desk looking out her window with her sketch pad. She needed to get inspired but she didn't know how to.

Then she did something she never thought she would do in her worshiped sketch pad.

She began to doodle.

Around an hour later she realized that she had just drawn six sets of eyes. The same shape and color, but just different versions of it. She ripped it out and walked over to her wall. Just as she started to pin it up she heard a knock at her door. It was the maid, Sue Clearwater.

"Bella? Dinner's nearly ready-that's a nice drawing." Sue complimented. "A little eerie, but nice."

Bella nodded. "Is dad home yet?"

Sue shrunk back as she usually did when she was forced to deliver disappointing news to Bella. "He's at work right now, but I'm sure he'll show up."

Bella tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "Oh. Right. Well, I'll be down in a sec."

Sue sighed in concern for the young girl. "Bella…why don't you go out tonight? I'm sure Harry would like to eat with me. And the kids. Why don't you call Jasper? You two were very close."

Bella's eyes tightened and Sue knew she crossed the line, so she stepped back in line. "Or not. That's fine."

"No no. Go eat with Mr. Clearwater. Tell Seth I said hi…and Leah." Bella added hesitantly.

"You sure?" Sue asked unable to hide the excitement in her eyes. Bella's stomach lurched but she nodded.

"Yeah. I'll just…I'll call one of my friends. Jasper." Bella nodded.

Five minutes later she watched Sue peel out of the driveway. She stood there at the window for a little while, then finally she walked to her closet which was also littered with pictures.

She walked inside it and dug out the old chest. She popped it open and began to flick through the pictures. Pictures of her mom, her, and her dad. She felt the pressure building behind her eyes and she couldn't help the hot tears spilling out of her eyes.

She angled her head so the tears would spill on the floor not on the picture. She set the pictures aside and picked up the little pink bear with a white ribbon on it. She took one look at it and began to sob into it.

She sat there for a little while just crying into it. But then the doorbell rang.

She looked up in hopefulness. Did her dad get off of work and actually come home? Did Sue come back?

She dried her eyes and nearly ran down stairs.

* * *

><p>Edward couldn't believe his luck. Not only had his precious Volvo broken down unexplainably, but his phone had died too. Not to mention that the snow had stopped, but the rain picked up.<p>

He had no choice, but to walk up to the giant house and ring the doorbell. The sight before made his jaw drop open.

It was Bella Swan.

Well, at least he thought it was her. She looked so unlike the Bella at school earlier that day. She was wearing a pair of purple pajama pants, a grey tank top, and a light purple jacket over that. Her hair was thrown up into a sloppy pony tail, and she had no make up on, though the red rings around her eyes suggested she had been crying.

But most different of all, she was actually smiling. A very small, very hopeful, very beautiful smile that unfortunately disappeared when she saw that it was him.

She looked totally bewildered. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, looking uncomfortable.

"Um," Edward pointed to his Volvo without taking his eyes off Bella. "My Volvo, it broke down. My phone," Edward fumbled taking his phone out of his pocket, and held it up to show her. "My phone, it-uh. It died."

Bella rolled her eyes and looked unhappy. "How convenient." she crossed her arms but didn't let him in.

"You-you didn't think that I did this on purpose, do you?" Edward asked baffled.

"Well-" Bella stopped herself. It did sound pretty farfetched. She sighed and stepped to the side. "Just make it quick."

Edward nodded and followed Bella to the kitchen where the house phone sat contently on the counter. He grabbed it and dialed his home phone number.

"_Hello?" _Edward Senior's voice responded.

"Hey Dad." Edward sighed. "My car broke down, can you and mom come get me?"

Bella had watched him while he talked to his father, but she wasn't really listening. She caught bits of the conversation though.

"I'm at the Swan residence." Edward sighed and Bella almost rolled her eyes.

Of course Edward would refer it to the Swan residence, and everyone knew where it was located. It was the overly large, over paid baby blue house with a huge front yard and patio with too many rooms for just two people.

Her father, Charlie Swan, owned this big company that revolved around cars. He had a car repair, a car dealership, a car junk yard-everything. Everyone knew who he was, what he did, and how much power he had.

When it seemed like the police station in Forks wasn't going to be able to function anymore because of the fact that they didn't have enough money to pay for squad cars, Charlie had donated five dozen, free of charge. Now the police station believes they are in debt, so in some ways, Charlie owns the police.

Bella found it completely ridiculous, and she was tired of people constantly kissing up to her and her dad to get a share of his power. If it weren't for the fact that her mother's maiden name was ludicrous, and that Charlie would probably have an aneurysm, Bella would've taken her mom's maiden name.

Edward's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Well why can't you guys just come and get me?"

Bella looked over at him and he looked annoyed. "Yeah. Alright. I'll see you later then."

He hung up and Bella just stared at him. "Well?" she asked.

"Oh, um, my parents and sending Peter to come pick me up." Edward responded pushing his damp hair back.

He expected her to ask who Peter was but she just shrugged.

"Well, you can go wait in your car." Bella responded frostily.

Edward flashed her a heartwarming, crooked smile that, though she would never admit it, even made her inner girly girl giggle.

_Shut your giggly ass up._ Her inner bitchier girl barked at the girly girl.

"Who would expect that such an innocent little thing could be hostile?" Edward chuckled. "What ever happened to hospitality?"

Bella glared at him so fiercely that Edward physically had to freeze to keep himself from cowering and screaming like a little girl.

"Get out." she ordered slowly as if she were talking to a little kid.

Edward shook his head. "Can I at least use your bathroom?"

Bella huffed and nodded. "This place has a billion and one bathrooms. I'm sure you can find one with out my help."

And she stormed away into the dining room. Edward shrugged to himself and wandered upstairs.

The first door he opened was obviously Bella's room. The room was red and black, except for one very mismatched wall that-from what he could tell-was a light purple. It was hard to see the purple because that wall was covered from top to bottom in sketches. All of them were amazing.

It took him only a couple of seconds to ogle all the pictures before he realized that if Bella caught him in her room, she would probably castrate him with a dull spoon.

After finding the bathroom he walked into the dining room. Bella was eating a small piece of steak with some rice and carrots. She swallowed a piece of the steak and stared at him.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" she asked sarcastically and shoved a carrot in her mouth.

"Did you know that you could easily bite your finger off like you do with a carrot, but your brain tells you not to?" Edward blurted out.

Bella just stared at him and bit into her carrot with a very eerie crunch.

"Fascinating." she muttered. "Are you leaving then?" Edward couldn't help but notice the hope in her voice, but he just ignored her question.

"Do you always eat alone?" he asked, but by the way Bella stopped looking at him and didn't respond, it was his guess that she was now pretending he wasn't there. "Do you mind if I stay here until Peter shows up?"

No answer again. Edward smiled and sat down at the other end of the table and grabbed a plate. "Do you mind if I eat? I'm starving."

Bella started grinding her teeth and bit down hard on a carrot instead of saying anything.

Edward couldn't help but smirk at the fact that he was testing her patience. Something about her just made him act like this. He was about to put a carrot in his mouth but he asked one more question.

"Where's your parents?" he asked. Before he could put the food in his mouth, Bella's fists came down on the table hard.

"Will you get out of my house already?" she shouted at Edward. Judging by the way she had impaled the table with a butter knife, Edward figured that it would be best if he waited in his car. But right when he got up he heard a car horn outside.

"That's my cue." Edward nodded smiling uneasily at the small girl glaring at him. "It was nice having dinner with you."

She followed Edward to the door with her arms crossed and still glaring at him. He opened the door and-to the bewilderment of Bella- let out a laugh and ran out to the jeep.

With out a second glance, Bella shut the door.


End file.
